During the summer session, the National Council allocated more money for education, research and science. The Council of States Commission believes this goes too far.
More money for education? The Council of States Commission wants to cut back – and reverse the budget increases recently approved by the National Council. (Symbolic image) – Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa
The responsible Council of States committee largely supports the Federal Council’s austerity efforts in education, research and innovation. It wants to reverse numerous decisions by the National Council to increase funding.
Specifically, it concerns the message on the promotion of education, research and innovation in the years 2025-2028 (ERI message). The Federal Council wants to invest around 29.2 billion francs for this. The National Council increased this amount by a good 150 million francs in the summer session.
The Council of States’ Science, Education and Culture Committee (WBK-S) believes this goes too far. It is asking its council to follow the Federal Council’s proposals on most of them and to confirm the payment framework proposed by it for the years 2025-2028, as the parliamentary services announced on Wednesday. It is thus of the same opinion as the majority of the Council of States’ Finance Committee (FK-S).
WBK-S against the agreed increase in the framework for vocational training
In particular, the WBK-S is opposed to the increase of 23.4 million francs in the funding framework for vocational training decided by the National Council. It also rejected the National Council’s planned increase of 100 million francs in the funding framework for the ETH sector. According to the statement, the two decisions were made by 8 to 4 and 7 to 5 votes respectively.
Contrary to what the National Council decided, the Council of States Commission does not want to increase the funds for the promotion of cantonal universities and specialized colleges, nor does it want to cut the funds for infrastructure. The WBK-S also says no to the credit increase of CHF 9 million for the innovation parks of “Switzerland Innovation” decided by the National Council.
A minority of the committee would like to stick with the increases decided by the National Council. They consider these to be appropriate. The education message will be discussed in the Council of States in the first week of the 2024 autumn session.
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